Is there a way to force the 9700 (or any Blackberry) to check for updates on installed apps? A month or two ago the phone seemed to do it on its own and found updates for about 5 of the programs I have. Since then I have not had it happen again and cannot find a way to force it to check.

Yeah. If you really want to stay up with the latest and as soon as it is released, you are going to have to do it yourself. New versions have been known to be available before the update appears on app world. Either use the 'check for update' feature of the app -- if there is one -- or regularly visit the developers download page.